Peninsula of peace

By Choi Sung-jin

While Koreans have been absorbed in an unprecedented presidential scandal and its aftermath for months, there were two developments overseas that might affect their lives enormously.

One was the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. The “America first” slogan of the real estate tycoon-turned-politician calls for maximizing U.S. national interests even at the expense of its allies and risks reverting to an isolationist policy similar to the 1930s and the beginning of the1940s.

The other was the first fruition of the “one belt, one road” project of Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the first cargo train that left the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang arriving in London after running 12,500 km in 17 days. The new Silk Road project encompassing 65 percent of the global population and one-third of the world’s GDP symbolizes China’s advance in the world.

Of course there is still considerable uncertainty in China’s ambition to bring the Eurasian continent together by land and sea. And the Trump administration’s strategic interests in Northeast Asia leave no doubt, as seen by the visit to Seoul and Tokyo this week by U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, less than a fortnight after he ― and his boss ― took office. The new U.S. defense chief will invariably reaffirm the trilateral alliance to keep a resurgent China in check.

As Washington and Beijing ratchet up their rivalry over regional hegemony, Korea ― which has to rely on America for national security and on China for economic prosperity ― can’t help being on pins and needles. Currently, Seoul is pressurized by both. The new U.S. government, while reaffirming its “ironclad alliance,” is calling for South Korea to pick up more of its defense bills. China, miffed by Seoul’s decision to deploy a U.S. missile shield, is pursuing economic retaliation, setting up higher nontariff barriers and severing cultural links.

Tokyo is giving Seoul no rest diplomatically, either. Nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, riding on the U.S. anxiety to bind its two Northeast Asian allies in a NATO-like resistance to China, has successfully turned itself into a nation that can start a war, letting itself off the hook over the “comfort women” issue and signing a military intelligence accord with Seoul. Add to these the escalating nuclear threat from Pyongyang, South Korea is surrounded by diplomatic rivals on all sides, as it was during the latter era of the Joseon Kingdom more than a century ago.

South Korea must find a way out of this situation and the sooner the better.

And this shows why the nation must oust President Park Geun-hye impeached by the National Assembly as early as possible and pick a new leader.

What type of president should South Korean voters elect with respect to foreign policy then? Can they find a new leader as shrewd as Trump and Abe and as strong as Xi and Vladimir Putin? That would be hard to expect not least because diplomatic ability comes less from individual leaders than from their national power. No amount of ability to walk the tight diplomatic rope can keep Seoul safe from the rising tension between the U.S. and China. That is, as long as South Korea and its political leaders accept rising rivalries and confrontation among major regional powers as an established fact that they cannot change.

The next leader here should be the one who can keep Korea safe ― economically and diplomatically ― at least for another couple of decades. He or she should keep this country from playing, once again, the role of a tinder box that ignites another regional ― or global ― military conflict but turn it into the origin of lasting peace and prosperity in this part of the world. And that is for the millions of Koreans who gathered in the plaza at the heart of Seoul every Saturday over the past few months, astounding foreigners with their peaceful demonstrations and resolute but orderly calls. The next South Korean president should be a person who can transform the citizens’ revolution for peace into the nation’s foreign policy keynote.

First of all, he or she should be able to minimize internal splits, the ideological schism in particular. In a less dichotomous society the new leader should work toward, those who oppose ― or rethink ― the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system should not necessarily be called “followers of North Korea.” It should be our long-term national interests ― not whether one likes Washington or Pyongyang or Beijing better ― that decide the introduction of a weapons system based on strict calculation of diplomatic costs and benefits. The anti-missile system would be of little use if ― a big if ― Seoul manages to persuade Pyongyang to freeze its nuclear programs.

Many, in and outside of this country, think such efforts would get nowhere, given Pyongyang’s adherence to its nuclear and missile ambitions as the only lifeline for the isolationist regime. Some, including the U.S. military-industrial complex and some Chinese leaders, may like the status quo better.

Yet South Korea must find a diplomatic way out ― in the northern half of this divided peninsula. North Korea is also the solution for the South’s economy stuck with a dwindling population and market. The new leader, based on improved inter-Korean relations, should make Washington and Beijing solve the North Korean nuclear crisis through dialogue. Armed with the initiatives of peace and human rights, Seoul should also be able to maintain moral superiority over Tokyo and Beijing.

The next leader should have the ability ― or a will at the least ― to make the Korean Peninsula the “peninsula of peace” for this country, the region and the world.

Choi Sung-jin is a contributing writer to The Korea Times. Contact him at choisj1955@naver.com.